China among others to offer aid as third earthquake hits west of country
Afghan women mourn the relatives killed in an earthquake at a burial site in Zenda Jan district in Herat province, western Afghanistan, on Oct 8, 2023. (PHOTO / AP)
Various sides including China extended support and condolences to Afghanistan’s earthquake victims, as casualties, including those killed or injured, in Herat and neighboring provinces exceeded 4,000, Afghan authorities said.
The Red Cross Society of China said on Oct 8 that it had decided to provide the Afghan Red Crescent with $200,000 in cash as emergency humanitarian assistance to aid its rescue and disaster relief efforts.
The Chinese International Development Cooperation Agency said it is willing to provide emergency humanitarian assistance based on the needs of the affected.
Meanwhile, Chinese nationals living in Afghanistan have collected cash and donated to the quake-affected families in Herat province.
Donated by 73 Chinese citizens, the cash was handed over to the Afghan caretaker government’s foreign affairs ministry on Oct 11. The money would be spent through the Afghan Red Crescent Society for relief efforts for families of the quake victims.
Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority has put out a search and rescue team on standby to assist the Afghan government in taking people out of the rubble. It is also going to send relief items, including food, medicine, tents, and blankets.
“It is very important now for the international community to step in and help Afghan people,” said Amina Khan, director of the Centre for Afghanistan, Middle East and Africa at the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad.
“So far, neighboring countries have been at the forefront. Pakistan and Iran have offered to send Afghanistan humanitarian aid and China’s Red Cross Society, I believe, has also offered not only cash relief, but other aid as well.”
The most affected area is the Zanda Jan district in Herat, where 13 villages have been “utterly destroyed”, Mawlawi Musa Ashari, Herat provincial director for Afghanistan’s National Disaster Management Authority, told reporters.
In a statement, Secretary-General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation Hissein Brahim Taha offered his sincere condolences to Afghanistan over the devastating earthquake. He affirmed that the OIC stands in full support of Afghanistan and solidarity with the nation and its people in this trying moment.
Qatar expressed its solidarity with the Afghan people on Oct 8. “Qatar stands with the victims of the earthquake and is fully prepared to provide necessary assistance for recovery,” the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
Two magnitude-6.2 earthquakes jolted the west of Afghanistan, near the border with Iran, on the afternoon of Oct 7, China Earthquake Networks Center said, resulting in huge casualties and property losses. A further 6.3 magnitude quake struck on Oct 11.
The Oct 11 quake, which jolted the western Herat province, was followed by another tremor with 5 magnitude in a span of minutes, leaving one person dead and 116 others injured.
Volunteers and rescuers had been working since Oct 7 on what were now last-ditch attempts to find survivors from the earlier series of earthquakes, which affected more than 12,000 people, according to UN estimates.
In the provincial capital of Herat city — 30 kilometers southeast of the quake epicenters in hard-to-reach Zenda Jan district — Doctors Without Borders said the injured now faced a new ordeal.
“More than 340 patients discharged yesterday don’t want to leave the hospital as they have no homes to return to,” the charity said on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, on Oct 10.
The impact of the Oct 11 quake is not yet clear, but many people are already sleeping in the open after their homes were destroyed, the BBC reported.
The Taliban had been very quick to respond after the Oct 7 quakes, said Khan from Pakistan. Afghan local governance structures under the Taliban have been trying in their limited capacities to help the civilians as there have been sanctions placed on the Taliban, she added.
“There are limitations when the entire economy has been dependent on the international community,” she said. “It is important not to forget that it is the common people in Afghanistan that are suffering and the focus has to be on the humanitarian aspect here.”
Khan mentioned that some countries should step away from using aid as a political tool when it comes to natural disasters such as this earthquake, and therefore they should extend their hand and help those people in need.
Before the Oct 11 earthquake, the Afghan caretaker government’s acting public health minister, Qalandar Ibad, said there was need for medicine and medical equipment for quake-affected people in western Afghanistan.
“If we look at the issue in the long term such as one month, two months, three months, or six months, we need medical equipment and medicines,” Ibad told Xinhua on Oct 9 after visiting hospitals in Herat province.
Xinhua and agencies contributed to this story.
